Anniversary of the Hammer Horror cycle
01/06/2007 . Source: Mark R. Leeper 
It should be noted that May 3rd of this year is the 50th anniversary of a major milestone in the horror film, says Mark. That was the date of the rebirth of what was mistakenly thought to be moribund, the gothic horror film. Universal Studios had built a gothic horror cycle in large part out of the ruins of the German film industry and the tradition of the popular films of Lon Chaney. Buy Hammer Horror in the USA - or Buy Hammer Horror in the UK  They had made a cycle of horror films starting with DRACULA in 1930 and Frankenstein the following year. This they developed into a whole series of horror films whose whole was worth a lot more than the sum of its parts. The first Universal Dracula and Frankenstein films were hobbled by the filmmakers not yet having mastered sound film. Each series peaked with its second film (DRACULA'S DAUGHTER and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) and went rapidly down with each successive film.
They finished the series off--the two then merged together--with three monster rallies that brought together as many of their classic monsters as they could fit on the screen. The first of these was HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN, then HOUSE OF DRACULA, and finally they really put a bullet into the series with ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN. After that in the 1940s and early 1950s the most they did with their horror cycle was have Abbott and Costello meet their old monsters in films with hack scripts that sold on the titles and probably not word of mouth. Gothic horror was dead. In the first half of the 1950s Universal almost abandoned traditional horror altogether for science fiction.
Meanwhile in a Britain only slowly getting back on its feet after the war, Hammer Films was in the dubious market of making low- budget films, frequently taking popular television and radio plays, and reworking them for the screen. They did comedies and dramas. Mostly these were films that were forgettable and were churned out because by law half the films released in Britain had to be British films and if the exhibitors wanted to show American films they had to show an equal number of British films. These were the "quota quickies." Actually, there were some very good films made by studios like Ealing at this time since there was little pressure on them to make the films profitable. The American film each allowed into Britain was where the real profit was expected.
Like Universal was now doing in America, Hammer dabbled in science fiction. They made THE FOUR-SIDED TRIANGLE, SPACEWAYS, THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT, QUATERMASS II, and X THE UNKNOWN. They found that the macabre and fantasy often were their most successful films. Then they had the idea. Nobody had yet made a gothic horror film in colour. (There was one colour sequence in THE RETURN OF DRACULA. Universal had made three horror films set at the Paris Opera house and each used colour in all or part.) Universal had very much driven gothic horror into the ground.
Nobody really knew if colour might not ruin the mood of a horror film. Hammer experimented to see what would happen if they made a Frankenstein film in colour. They could make it sensational by showing flashes of body parts and blood and they would show up well because it was colour.
Originally the film was to be similar to the Universal film of 1931, but Universal threatened to sue if it was at all reminiscent of their film. Well, so much for the script they had written and for having Boris Karloff play Dr. Frankenstein. The film was cast with stock players. Peter Cushing played Victor Frankenstein. They needed somebody imposing for the monster and Christopher Lee was chosen because he was 6'5" tall. The title was THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN. May 3, 1957, was the release date.
The critics for the most part thought that the imagery was too visceral. They did not think that visual horror would or should have much of a future. In fact, almost everything is implied even in this film. We also see some red stains on clothing, and some organs hidden mostly by cloth or fluid. Much of what would be disgusting is kept just off screen. Most of the rest is red smeared on clothing. It is more the colour that creates the effect than actually being graphic.
Word of mouth spread more quickly than critical reviews. For better or worse suddenly the film was a giant hit. This was a new experience for Hammer films. They were used to making films for filling out the bottom halves of double bills. Now theaters had queues around the blocks of people wanting to see their film. Warner Brothers executives had a New York screening and within two hours had sent a print to Jack Warner himself, effectively saying, "Look what we found! Nail this one down quickly." Jack Warner himself screened the film and immediately bought it. Warners released it with saturation booking and in many cities around-the-clock showings.
Eventually the film brought back its production costs something between twenty and seventy times (depending on who is telling the story). While not all the effects of this film were positive, this was really the advent of explicit rather than implied horror in cinema.
Horror, science fiction, and fantasy had been a very small part of British film output to this point. Suddenly it became a major factor. Hammer's next gothic film was DRACULA (United States title: HORROR OF DRACULA), an even bigger success. This was a real jumpstart for the British film industry. In America, for once Alfred Hitchcock found himself following somebody else's lead. There is far more graphic in Hitchcock's PSYCHO than in any of his previous films. What probably set this film apart was the use of colour and British filmmaking craftsmanship.
Terence Fisher, who had directed, did not have much of a budget at all, but the British accents and sets gave the film a feeling that it was a quality product. There was demand for more British horror. For fifteen years at least, British horror had a certain cachet. Many of the horror film fans of the boomer generation saw the Universal horror films on television Saturday late night, but they saw British horror films and particularly Hammer films on the wide screen and later on prime time movies of the week.
The actual quality of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN may not stand up to objective scrutiny, but its influence on the horror film is inestimable and continues today in virtually every science fiction and horror film. Like STAR WARS, it would be easy to blame CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN for the excesses of its imitators. But there are many find horror films that would never have been made without its lead. It spawned an entire cycle of British horror films and can be considered the first modern horror film.
Thursday, May 3, will be the 50th anniversary of the release of CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
Mark R. Leeper
© Mark R Leeper 2007 |
|
Add SFcrowsnest.com daily news updates to your
own web site or blog - just cut and paste the code
below...
POST YOUR COMMENTS  CLICK HERE TO HAVE YOUR SAY
|
